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ALMS rookie Colin Braun enjoys life as a racing jack-of-all-trades. Photo by ALMS

Variety spices up ALMS rookie Braun's career

July 29, 2012

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My heroes when I first became interested in auto racing were some of the sport's most versatile stars. While A.J. Foyt never raced in Formula One, he drove just about anything else with four tires and a steering wheel. And on any given weekend, you could find Mario Andretti and Dan Gurney racing in anything from formula cars to stock cars to open-wheel cars.

Along with all that series-hopping came winning races and championships. These guys were good enough to step into just about anything and run up front.

These days, moving from one type of car to another is relatively rare. The media and fans go mad when a Dario Franchitti or Danica Patrick makes the jump from Indy cars to stock cars. Only a handful of drivers in NASCAR and IndyCar jump into sports cars for the fun of it, as did many drivers in past generations.

There are good reasons, of course. Nowadays, drivers have to not only race more often in their own series, with long, tough schedules the norm. But they also have to test and take care of the all-important and time-consuming sponsor obligations.

But there are still a few of the new breed who make the effort to get into any car that is made available to them.

Colin Braun, a 23-year-old racer from Texas who now makes his home in North Carolina, is certainly one of the most versatile drivers around these days. Although he is now racing full-time in an American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón's Prototype Challenge class for Core Autosport, Braun is a throwback to those versatile drivers of old.

He vividly recalls a week last year when he tested a Daytona prototype, shook down a historic Indy car, drove a dirt Late Model, then shook down a short-track asphalt Late Model and, finally, tested a NASCAR truck . . . all at different tracks from North Carolina to Texas.

“I think the ALMS prototype car that I'm driving right now in the PC class is really fun to drive. The races are really intense, and I'm really enjoying that at the moment,” he noted.

And he's still getting used to the car, although Braun and teammate/team owner Jon Bennett head to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course this weekend deadlocked for the PC class points lead with teammate Alex Popow. Braun and Bennett moved into a championship tie on the strength of two straight wins and a runner-up in the past three ALMS events.

“I had an eye-opening experience at the beginning of this year,” Braun said. “I had driven for five or six years in the Grand-Am sports car series and the NASCAR series where I had a roof over my head. Then I got the opportunity for race for Core Autosport in PC in ALMS, and that's an open-cockpit car.

Colin Braun drives for Core Autosport in the American Le Mans Series. Photo by ALMS

“We went to Sebring and I went out for the first time, jumped in the car and realized it's a lot different than what I was used to. There are no doors to close, and the whole world doesn't get smaller when you get inside the car. You can see exactly what you can see from the time you get into one of those cars. It took me a little while to get used to that and the wind buffeting and all the wind noise and things like that. And this PC car has carbon brakes, which was new to me, too.

“This car is a little more advanced than some of the things I've driven in the past,” he continued. “It's so much fun to drive. Of course, like any race-car driver would say, it needs more horsepower. But it makes good downforce, the races are really intense and close and it's a blast.”

Braun realizes how fortunate he is to have had the chance to drive so many different cars at this point in his young career.

“For me, as a little kid growing up, I looked up to the guys like Mario and A.J., who could drive anything and everything,” Braun explained. “I guess when I was growing up, it was Tony Stewart who I really looked up to. He was the guy that could drive an Indy car, a sports car or a stock car and be successful and win. He could go in a midget one night and the next night go run really good in his Indy car.

“It's always been something I've looked up to a lot of drivers for -- their ability to be able to drive a wide array of different vehicles. I just think that's a really neat skill and talent and certainly is one that not everyone has a chance to go do. You've got so many people that grow up racing Legends cars. Then they go race short-track Late Model cars, then they're in NASCAR. They don't get the opportunity to do a lot of different things. It's cool when you come across someone who does.”

It certainly is.

Mike Harris is a retired auto racing writer for the Associated Press and remains a frequent contributor to a variety of racing outlets.